Bay Area names top stimulus priorities - Portland Business Journal:

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Projects ranked among the highest in the plan covefr a wide range of proposalsincludintg high-speed rail construction, extending the BART line to San Jose and borinv another roadway in the East Bay’s Caldecott Together, the highest-priority projects are seekinvg more than $7 billion in stimuluw money. The priority list also includes a new stem cell researcnh facility at the inMarin County, energuy efficiency and solar retrofits of public and other building in San Jose, San Francisco and Oakland; energgy conversions to LED streetlights; transit-oriented development projects and workforces training and placement for laid-off employees.
“This plan is designexd to maximizeour region’s share of federal stimuluws funding and other state support that will benefirt the Bay Area in both the near and said Sean Randolph, CEO of the , whicbh was charged with compiling the list. The top 85 projects were classifiedas “strategic” priorities for the Bay Another 72 projects were considerefd “significant” but given a slightlyg lower ranking because they did not have the scale or regionalp impact of the most highluy ranked suggestions.
Those projects include things like a desalinationn project in the Montara Water and Sanitary building a clean technology demonstratio n manufacturing center in San Jose and outfittingt Burlingame city buildings with solar The plan, which can be found onlinee at www.bayareaeconomy.org/recovery, was the culmination of a three-mont vetting process. The report was sent to the . That statee agency, which requested that othee metropolitan regions around the state submitsimilar plans, will now take all those plans and help coordinate with citiees and counties to lobby the federal government on behalf of certain “This is to get people on the same page to minimizw the food fight where you have parts of the statee compete against one another,” said Dale head of the California Business Transportation and Housing Agency.
“Whay we’re doing is actin as a facilitator to help identifythe projects. The list’s authors said they hoped that rankinfg projects would help the regiomn get morestimulus money. “The Bay Area is the only region in Californiq that actually attemptedto prioritize,” Randolph “We think that’s important. We think that will make us more successfupl ingetting attention, in getting thoser resources for those very high valuwe projects.” Projects on the Economic Institute’x wish list could be in for a big About $30 billion in federal stimulus money will be divvied up in Sacramentp before going to various regions around California.
Another $20 billion is expected to be distributed directly in the state by federakl officials on adiscretionary basis. The chance to get dollare from the federal stimulus program led to a flurruyof proposals. Bay Area authorities sifted througuh almost570 suggestions. To make the cut, projectzs were supposed to spur job have regional impact and aligjn with state programs and amongother criteria. The Economic Institute called upon locall experts in specific fields to judge proposalsx that fit at leastt one ofseven categories: transportation, water, energy/climate, workforcs training and education, business development, science and innovatioh or housing.
The vast majority of projects that made it to theEconomicd Institute’s short list were from government A range of companies sought federaol stimulus, too, saying that their service woulf help boost the broader economy. For example, a Berkeley-based firm calles Picture it Sold sought stimulus money to franchisseits home-staging business. “We’re ready to move aheade with thisplan immediately,” the company wrote in its “and we’ll help thousands of families and the wholew economy to recover.” The company’ idea did not make the Economicf Institute’s highest priority cut.
But an appendix to the Economic Institute’s wish list includesz every proposalit received.